1 month..........

It is been exactly one month and one day since we received our referral for our baby girl. We have not heard anything regarding her court date. When we got the referral, I honestly didn't expect to hear any news until courts re-opened from the rainy season closure. However, other Bethany families have received their court dates during the closure, but I don't want to get my hopes up. I am actually panicking a little about our CIS approval though. We have to get re-fingerprinted to make our I-171H updated for our Embassy. I was reading on a forum that it is taking other families up to 16 weeks to get their forms back. I requested for ours to be expidited, but who knows. No one is ever in a hurry when you want them to be. We don't even have dates yet for being fingerprinted. I hope to hear something this week. I just want to get this all over with. Today I am in the "I'm sick of it!!!" mood. That won't last very long because I know that I am really not sick of it. I will do whatever it takes to get my baby home. We just found out yesterday that our church is putting on another golf benefit for us to help raise funds for our travel expenses. I am sooo excited. It is a LOT of work, but the pay off is worth it. I am also looking into other forms of fundraising....t-shirt sales, coffee sales, lots of stuff!

Our Baby's Birth

Recently I have been dwelling on the birth of our baby. Here in America there is so much hype leading up to the birth of a baby. Will I have a "natural" birth? Will I have an epidural? Will I have a home birth? Will I use a midwife or an OB? In the case of our biological children, we had little choice. I had to have 3 c-sections. Andrea was breach; Noah was too big; and Nathan was our 3rd which prevented us from trying it, but he was too big anyway. The kids, especially Nathan, love to yell, "That's where I was born!" when we drive past the hospital. I will never forget the days that they were born. Never. They are so engrained in my memory and will forever be a part of me. This picture of me is when they were closing me up after Nathan was born. I am looking over at the nurses trying to see what they are doing with my baby. Notice the steril environment and how many peole are caring for me. This picture shows only 3, there were several more.

This is beautiful Andrea. Our firstborn. Perfectly formed in every way.This is Noah after he was born. Look how huge and handsome he was. They busily cleaned him up for us.This is Nathan. Precious little guy is recovering from his birth. So tiny and yet big for a newborn.

All of these pictures make me think of precious little "B" in Africa. According to her paperwork, she was born on May 3. What was that day like? For us I can remember what WE were doing that day. In the morning I was busy with my preschool class. It was the last week of school for us so we were working on the letter Z. That evening our family went out to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate MY birthday which is May 4. I remember where we sat. It was family night and there was a magician there doing tricks for the kids. They went nuts trying to figure out how he was doing the tricks. We had a wonderful evening together; not even realizing that our baby was being brought into this world on the other side of the globe. What was her birth experience like? I'm sure the environment was not sterile like the pictures above. I'm pretty sure there wasn't a skilled doctor helping her out of her birthmother. Did her mother have access to medical care? Did she have trouble delivering the baby? Here is a picture of a chair commonly used to birth babies in Africa. Did she use one of these?
I cannot imagine what this young girl went through to deliver our precious little angel. I look forward to the day when I can talk with her in person and learn about the experience she had. What a sacrifice of love she made for this little baby.

First day of school and Noah's birthday

Noah's Birthday!

First Day of School

Nathan is OH SO THRILLED that he is getting his picture taken.

Andrea and Noah getting ready to walk to the bus.

Andrea is such a beauty and so excited to be in the 3rd grade.

Noah is so handsome and is looking forward to the 1st grade.

Eating breakfast and talking to Grammie before school.

They had an absolutely wonderful 1st day of school. I can't believe they are getting so big.

weekend...........

We had a really great weekend with our adoption group. Friday we loaded the kids up after school and headed to Jill's house for Aaron's 1st birthday. He has been home from ET for a couple of months now and is doing so great. Emily was there with Elliott for the party. That little girl is something. She LOVES me. She follows me everywhere and wants to sit in my lap or hold her constantly. It is the "baby fix" I need to help me get through this wait. I love our monthly gatherings...they really do help me not to go crazy. We ended up spending the night in Jill's basement. The kids loved "camping out" on the floor. Andy and I slept on hideaway beds!!! We got up the next morning and went to a thing called heavenly hand me downs at Jills church. We got a laundry basket full of FREE clothes for the kids. We came back home, got showers, and headed to Emily's house for the "official" play date. Kelly brought Mebrate, who was the hit of the party. Everyone passed her around and loved on her. It was so nice holding a tiny baby girl who is similar in size to ours. I feel connected to her for some reason. A new couple was there as well. Krista and Mike. They were super sweet and it was so nice to be able to encourage them along in the early stages of their adoption. Krista went to Rose Hulman too, Andy's alma mater! Later that night we came home. Sunday we celebrated Noah's 7th birthday! What a special little boy he is. We had a star wars party! Let me tell you, light sabers were flying everywhere! He had a blast. I will post pics later.

Smiles

Even after exactly 3 weeks my faces is still full of smiles. We haven't gotten any updates on our baby girl, except for the pictures from Kelly. I still can't stop looking at them. I guess I haven't updated the blog, but after we got our referral we were able to contact a friend who was in Ethiopia picking up her little girl. Miraculously she was able to take pictures of "B" the day she went to Awassa. She sent them to us after she got home so we are pretty excited. Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet her for lunch and meet her sweet little baby. She is so tiny...and yet Kelly said that she is bigger than our little baby. She told me the story about when she saw her. She knew it was her and wanted to take her picture. She asked the head social worker and he said no. But, he called the head office in Addis and they confirmed that she had permission to take her picture. Kelly snapped a couple of shots and then asked if she could hold her. When she picked her up the nannies were freaking out because the baby didn't have a diaper. So the nannies were trying to shove towels underneath her bottom so she wouldn't use the bathroom on Kelly! LOL. I thought that was a pretty funny story. Kelly also shared with me that "B" is probably the healthiest baby at the orphanage. Needless to say, that made me feel so much better. Her skin is very clear and smooth and her eyes are clear as well. I do hope they move her to the transition home soon so that she gets more individual attention. I don't want her lying in the crib alone staring at the ceiling for hours with no interaction unless she is hungry or soiled. I know the nannies hold them, but they don't try to make eye contact with the babies and love on them like we will. Oh, I long to go to her. I hope we find out our court date soon. Pray that there is no hold up for us and we will get a date soon. The sooner we know our dates, the cheaper the tickets will be.